Tanzania is set to roll out new banknotes in February, as part of ongoing currency reforms that also include the ongoing withdrawal of shilling notes issued from 1985 to 2003, and the 2010 TZS 500 shilling note.
- •The withdrawal order will affect the TZS 20, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 notes issued between 1985 and 2003.
- •In October, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) instructed the country’s financial institutions to facilitate exchange of the withdrawn notes for the new ones.
- •New notes in TZS 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 denominations will enter into circulation from February 1st, BoT governor Emanuel Tutuba said this week.
The exchange of recalled notes kicked off on January 6th 2025 and is set to end on April 5th 2025. The new notes are based on the 2010 series, except for the updated signatures of the BoT governor and the Minister of Finance to replace the signatures of prior office holders.
Recently, Kenya’s central bank also redesigned the country’s banknotes to include CBK Governor Kamau Thugge and Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo’s signatures, and made several updates to security features.
In Sudan, the government introduced new notes for the 500 and 1000 banknotes as part of the country’s efforts to stabilise an economy in the middle of a long-running civil war. The main goal of the move was to demonetise the previous notes, a tactic meant to make the banknotes looted during the ongoing conflict worthless.
The changes have been criticised for including mandatory bank accounts and withdrawal quotas. This, in addition to a ban on usage by the paramilitary group RSF in areas it controls, has limited the macroeconomic effects of the new banknotes.
